"Cattle Kate" Summer Evening Program at NHTIC

The Bureau of Land Management (BLM) National Historic Trails Interpretive Center (NHTIC) presents a presentation about the lynching of Ella Watson, also known as “Cattle Kate.”

Click on the image of Tom Rea to download a high-res version.

The one-hour program, free and open to the public, is at 7 p.m. on August 29, at the NHTIC theater.

According to the presenter, Tom Rea, the six men who lynched Ella Watson near Independence Rock in 1889 were furious about the wire fence she had erected on her Sweetwater valley homestead claim.

Watson's murder underscored the tensions between cattlemen and homesteaders, custom and law. Tom Rea explores how sensational newspaper reports created a false portrait of Watson as "Cattle Kate," a rustler and prostitute.

Tom Rea is a journalist and author of Devil’s Gate: Owning the Land, Owning the Story. He lives in Casper, Wyo.

For more information about summer evening programs, contact Alex Rose at the NHTIC, (307) 261-7780.

The NHTIC is a public-private partnership between the BLM and the National Historic Trails Center Foundation. The facility is located at 1501 N. Poplar Street, Casper, Wyo. The Center is currently operating on summer hours, and is open daily, 8 a.m. to 7 p.m.

The BLM manages more than 245 million acres of public land, the most of any Federal agency. This land, known as the National System of Public Lands, is primarily located in 12 Western states, including Alaska. The BLM also administers 700 million acres of sub-surface mineral estate throughout the nation. The BLM's mission is to sustain the health, diversity, and productivity of Americas public lands for the use and enjoyment of present and future generations. In Fiscal Year 2015, the BLM generated $4.1 billion in receipts from activities occurring on public lands.